Poised | EnergyNorthwest.com

DOE Poised to Issue Guidance Document for Civil Nuclear Credit Program

April 16, 2022

The Department of Energy (DOE) will next week kick off its much-watched $ 6 billion Civil Nuclear Credit (CNC) program to bolster the existing U.S. nuclear fleet by issuing a guidance document that will set down criteria for a combined certification and a sealed bid auction process.

The agency said in an April 6 update the guidance document it will make public in the week of April 18 “will define program eligibility requirements, identify all required deliverables for both certification applications and the sealed bid auction, and give details on program administration.” Because it is acting on an ambitious schedule as required by the November 2021–enacted Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the agency said it will aim to issue the first certification determination and preliminary credit award decisions “expeditiously” after a 30-day open application period.

The first award cycle for fiscal year 2022 will “prioritize and be limited to reactors that are approaching near-term closure,” the DOE said in its update.…

Is Nuclear Power Poised for a Resurgence?

February 14, 2021

| No Comments

| Industry News

The post Is Nuclear Power Poised for a Resurgence? appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Since 1990, nuclear power has consistently supplied about 19% to 20% of the electricity used in the U.S. However, very few nuclear plants have been added to the U.S. fleet over that time. Currently, the only new nuclear project in the U.S. is Southern Company’s Plant Vogtle expansion, which is expected to add two new reactors to the grid by the end of next year. Still, there are 50 reactors under construction around the world—12 of them in China—and several countries are considering adding more.

“There has been a fundamental shift in the thinking around the world. As climate change has become front and center as the number one issue globally—environmental issue and societal issue—the recognition that nuclear can and should play a part in helping us overcome the climate change problems has shifted a lot of thinking in governments that I talk to around the world, but also even with people that are environmental-minded—people that have been, in the past, anti-nuclear—and start seeing that nuclear now is and should be part of the solution.…

Report: Cheap Natural Gas Poised to Roil PJM Power Market

May 13, 2017

| No Comments

| Industry News

The flood of cheap Marcellus Shale gas driving massive construction of new natural gas power generation capacity could wreak havoc in the PJM power market, Moody’s Investors Service suggests in a new report.

Two of the nation’s largest power markets, Texas and California, already pose a “distressed environment” for unregulated power companies owing to declining market prices, the credit ratings agency said. Now, a glut of new gas generation in PJM—where new plants are expected to add up to 100 TWh, boosting gas power capacity 25%, by 2021—is poised to increase supply “amid little prospect of growth in demand,” it said.

The agency noted that PJM’s latest forecast report indicates load growth has declined over the last decade, with system load falling to 790 TWh in 2015 from 822 TWh in 2005. Peak demand has also fallen to 143 GW in 2015 from 154 GW in 2005. “Over the past few years PJM has also repeatedly cut its forecasts, and the grid operator currently projects weather-adjusted peak demand growth of only 0.2% per year over the next 10 years,” the report says.…

Six Years After Fukushima, Only Three Reactors Operating in Japan, More Poised to Restart

March 10, 2017

| No Comments

| Industry News

Six years after the Fukushima disaster prompted an electricity crisis in Japan and sent tremors throughout the world’s nuclear power sector, Japan is determined to continue its reliance on nuclear for nearly a fifth of its power needs in the long term.

Nuclear will make up 20% to 22% of Japan’s power mix by 2030, under a long-term plan issued in 2015, Hirohide Hirai, the director general of Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), told attendees at CERAweek by IHS Markit, which is taking place in Houston this week.

On March 11, 2011, nearly a day after the 3-minute, 9.0-magnitude Great Tohoku Earthquake struck northeastern Japan—and unleashed a tsunami that killed 20,000 people—the world learned that Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s (TEPCO’s) Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear plants were in peril after rising waters inundated and disabled offsite power supplies.

All of Japan’s nuclear power plants were shut down for safety checks after the disaster. Six years later, only three of 45 operable reactors have come online: Kyushu Electric’s Sendai 1 and 2 (restarted in 2015), and Shikoku Electric Power Co.’s…